Not Always As It Seems
by godssinger
Summary: The gang has a few problems, Can anyone help them? Written by: Dani, Stacey, Shelb and Shayna
1. A note From Shayna Jimmy

Note: The title is Not Always As It Seems, if you've read it, don't worry, ALL questions will be answered and it DOES have a plot, and a purpose. Carl has moved, BUT there will be chapters where he visits, or phone calls, ECT… If you have not read it, I encourage you to do so. But again, we named it Not Always As It Seems for a reason, actually for MANY reasons. 


	2. Chapter One Libby

_Not Always What It Seems_

_Written by: Stacey, Dani, Shayna, and Shelby_

_Chapter one by Dani_

_A small tear dripped down my perfect brown complexion as I hid at the top of the stairs. They were screaming, yelling, ARGUING again. I shivered in the cold house, alone in the world, or so it seemed. I clutched my palms to my knees as my puppy, Scruffy, licked my bare right ankle. I picked him up and laid him in my lap gently. I petted his soft, furry back as it became damp with salty tears. I couldn't help but cry. I was only 10, after all. The hollering got louder. I couldn't take it anymore as it rang in my ears and rattled my aching head. I let my puppy run before I rushed down the steps, fury growing with each flip-flopped step. My cry echoed through the hallways, through my head and through my parents' ears. "ENOUGH!" I screamed with all the decibels my ten-year-old lungs could create through my voice box. The pitch and intensity frightened the two immature adults that stood before me. I watched my mother take a step forward, and say the words that crushed my heart… "I want a divorce," she declared in a worn, tired, raspy voice. My father's eyes seemed to be filled with fire and rage, but he suppressed it and nodded to her. The next week was like a horrible nightmare. More fights, papers being signed, and my dad packing. The day he was to leave, I chased him out to his car. He was all packed, he was ready, and Mama was inside, shoulders heaving with sobs. Dad was in the driver's seat, getting his keys ready to start the ignition. The song "Hey Jude" by the Beatles was playing when the radio fired up. "Where are you going, Daddy? Why are you leaving me? I love you Daddy, don't leave me, why are you leaving me?" I sobbed into his arms. He held me close and petted my black hair. "Baby, I'm going to find my home." He told me simply. "But Daddy, this is your home! Here, with us!" I sobbed harder. "I love you, sweetheart, but I can't stay here. I still love you with all of my heart, but your mama and I just can't get along. You'll have some peace and quiet. Now go inside and stay with your mama, you hear me? You'll see me again someday, I promise…" Then he got out of the car, lifted me high in the air, and set me forward on the driveway. He kissed my forehead, leaving the scent of his cologne in the air, got in his car, and left. I screamed at the car, "Daddy come back!" But he never did, and that's how I know promises are lies… _

Tears filled my eyes as the flashback haunted my sleepy morning thoughts. I blinked them away stubbornly and wiped any sign of them off my face. I stared out the window, in a thoughtful trance. Until…"Libby! Get down here now, Missy!" I heard a loud female voice yell. I rolled my honey brown eyes and grabbed my book bag off my desk. I trudged down the stairs where a semi-cheery Cindy was waiting at the bottom. We dashed out the door without a word to my mother. We were getting to be queens of that. My mom shook her head as we ran to catch up with the bus and smacked into Jimmy and Sheen, who were also running for the bus. The collision ended up in a heap on the sidewalk, in pain. Sheen extended a hand and I didn't accept. "Boy, please. I can get up myself." I told him with my snappy attitude. I wasn't about to open up to any guy, especially not Sheen. I mean he was…Sheen. And I was…Libby. It just didn't work that way. I stood up, brushed myself off, and picked Cindy up from the ground. She rubbed her head painfully. "Why don't you watch that big head of yours, Neutron!" she spat. "Why don't you bring your nose from the air so you can see where you were going, Vortex!" Jimmy shot back venomously. I rolled my eyes. "Let's go, Cindy." I demanded, too annoyed to care what Cindy did. Arguing was NOT a fun thing with me. Obviously.


	3. Chapter 2 Sheen

Not Always As It Seems

Chapter 2

Written by: Stacey

My day started off the same as my others have been lately. Average. The bad kind I mean. It's never any worse than the day before, and I'm not worse off than any of the other kids around me, I'm just always feeling so strangely   
down and depressed. Like, well... I don't know! I have no idea exactly what it is that actually went so wrong with everything. I used to be a happy kid, from what I can remember anyway! Something just, went. Maybe it was hitting   
the teenage years, even though I don't specifically remember turning thirteen anything changing. I guess Ill never know, its just one of those things you cant. I hate that.

I woke to the smiley face of Ultralord from my many posters. The heroic masked face I so dearly honor and look up to, or used to. It really hit me that I had a problem when not even a BRAND NEW EPISODE of Ultralord could   
put me in a good mood. I got out of bed and began my usual daily routine. You know the basic wash/dress/eat thing. Except there's generally never a smiley parent ushering me out of bed and cooking my pancakes whilst complaining about the mess my bedroom is or something parent-ish like that.   
Don't get me wrong, I have parents, well a dad anyway. He can be okay sometimes he's just... I don't really think he notices that I'm a living thing... he just cares about his alcohol and. Well that and his TV. Mom… well we never talk about Mom. Not if I want to keep Dad out of one of his   
'moods'. And as long as I am sane (which I must admit, that's questionable!) I want to keep Dad out of his 'moods' because when he's not in one he usually goes easy on the drinking. Usually

"Sheen, that you? Why are you up so early?" I heard a deep, rough voice call out.

I sighed. I hope he wasn't going to get all-mad for waking him. "I have school Dad"

His bedroom door opened and my dad appeared looking tired and messed up. But then he always does so I didn't worry about it. "School! I never went to school! Just a big fuss over nothing! I mean come on! I never went to school   
and I did pretty well off!"

I nodded, hoping I was convincing enough to make him at least think I was interested in what he had to say. "Ok, I've got to go now."

"Fine then! Go be a fool and get an education!" He scorned.

I don't know what made me say it. It was stupid. It just slipped out. 

"Mom would have wanted me to get an education."

"Mom's not here" He said in an icy tone, "I thought you might have noticed that. But still, you never were the smartest kid."

I stood, unsure of what to say next for a moment before picking up my school bag and heading towards the door.

"Son, do me a favour. Call in to the store for me on the way home?" I made a face at the thought of me always having to be the one who does all his jobs but then I guess he WAS my dad and I WOULD be a fool to come in the way of   
my dad and his "habits" so I accepted the ten dollar bill he held out and placed it in my pocket and headed out of the door.

"HEY SHEEN!" I heard from behind me. I turned and saw Jimmy running up.

"Hey Jimmy" I said unenthusiastically. It's pretty pathetic that not even my best friend can get me to smile. He started questioning me about Ultralord in a fake, cheery voice while I answered blankly not even really registering   
the questions properly. I never really do pay attention to the questions, just somehow manage to register them and answer. It really wouldn't surprise me if one day I was sat alone and just started randomly answering questions, I guess that's a problem more to do with me than with my   
so-called-depression. Apparently crazy and sad are not the best combination, but then I guess sad isn't a good combination with anything.

Jimmy and I continued to struggle from loss of words, trying our best to act cool and friendly when really any conversations with friends always   
seemed to be extremely awkward. It's not really Jimmy, he tries his best to act normal and happy. He actually leads a pretty normal life from what I can tell, except sometimes he zones out into deep thought but they cant really   
be anything wrong with him I'm sure, at least I think I'm sure. CRASH.

Jimmy and I found ourselves in a heap on the floor with Libby and Cindy. I jumped up and brushed myself off quickly in an attempt to prove that a little fall like that wouldn't affect my strength (although my arm was really killing!) and held out my arm as an offer to help Libby up, hoping to myself she wouldn't notice the reddish color that was slowly creeping onto my cheeks. She pulled a face that made me feel diseased and got herself up. I quickly hurried off on my own towards the bus stop, probably leaving   
chance for an arguing match between Jimmy and Cindy, not daring to look back or even lift my head. Sure I'd not done anything more than offer to help her up, but I felt terribly rejected. I guess it was acceptable for a beautiful girl like Libby to refuse help from a guy like me, I'm just a lame, loser, kinda guy everyone likes to laugh at. Whatever it was it had just added onto my 'List of Many Reasons to Be Unhappy'. I didn't wasn't anything to worry too much about though, it was all just part of 'The Average Day in the Life   
of Sheen.'


	4. Chapter 3 Cindy

            My alarm woke me up this morning. I hate alarm clocks. They wake you up and I like my mom waking me up, as nerdy as that sounds. I went to my closet get dressed; only to realize all my clothes were dirty. Rushing down toward the laundry room, I ran down two flights of stairs with my golden hair flying behind me. As soon as I got there my clothes were all neatly hung. I grabbed a couple of pairs and ran back up the stairs to my room. Setting the clothes on my bed and ran to my mom's room. I screamed at her hoping at least woke her up. And just for that she grounded me. I got dressed in my new Mickey shirt, and ate some cereal.

I rushed in the classroom 30 min. early to ask Miss. Fowl if I could switch seats with Zoe, who sits next to Nick; of course she said no, I have to sit where I am, next to nerd-brain. I really want to switch seats with Zoe. I'm not so sure about that.

 Luckily nerd-brain is going to get chalk dust in his face as soon as he opens his desk, and nobody will know I did it. 

Yesterday I talked to Nick and Betty asked if I could join their group, they said it will take some work, but I'm up to the challenge. First things first they say I need to die my hair pink. Anyway the cheerleading try-outs are tomorrow, my 2nd year, so I'm trying out for that. I'll be leavening my old self, but at least Nick will be so impressed. 

I can't believe I was so mean to Libby we are best friends. Telling her I don't hang out with losers; when we both know she's not a loser. She most likely won't forgive me, and I probably don't deserve her forgiveness. At least I get to talk to her tonight 5:00 to 8:00. During the days I try to avoid her, so that I can get away with barely saying anything to her. I hope she knows I'm there for her with the divorce and all. If my parents were divorced then I'd be madder then a fox. I'm going back home got to get on the bus with Libby.


	5. Chapter 4 Jimmy

Not Always As It Seems

Written by: Shayna, Dani, Stacey, and Shelby

Chapter 4-by: Shayna

          "Five, four, three, two, one… we have liftoff!" My alarm clock went off as usual, I hit it off and buried my head in my pillow. The nights were no longer restful times, where I'd dream of Cindy, now they were but a threat of reality. So it wasn't like I wanted to go to sleep, that was torture, but I didn't want to go to school either. Therefore, there I lay. In bed staring at the top of my pillow, thinking about the 'thoughts' I had last night instead of my O-so-sweet-dreams, I miss so dearly.  Sheen has been acting really weird lately; he hasn't even mentioned Ultralord once this week. Even his grade, which was already pathetic at a flat 'C', has dropped to a very disgraceful 'F' in less than four weeks. So, as if that isn't enough, he doesn't even talk to me anymore, not about Libby or Ultralord. It makes me wonder, is Sheen there or is his body just an empty corpse. Actually, not much is the same as it was in the beginning of the year. 

"Jimmy, are you up?" my mother hollered up the stairs. I stumbled out of bed, and my eyes drifted to my window, there I saw, in the shadows, Cindy's beautiful shadow. Then it all came back, just like that. The reality was like a nightmare, worse than Sheen's situation to me, worse then the thoughts at night.  Worse than anything I could imagine. 'Cindy would never like me as I do her.' That truth hurt more than I could bear. Not so much the fact itself, for on the surface, it was always there. It was the attitude. 

See, at the beginning of eternity Cindy and I hated each other, or at least appeared to. But as I got smarter, I started noticing slight frowns if I was sad, or smiles if something worked. It was then that I started having slight feelings for her, in the fifth grade. It's been about two years since then, at one point all I had to do was fess up, she would have been mine. Pride got the best of me so I didn't, she kept flirting more and more, and I was about to tell her the truth. Then that day came, I was about to say it, and Jessie, the second most popular girl next to Betty comes up, hands Cindy a cheerleader try-out form and told Cindy to try-out, because she was sure to make it. Cindy squalled with delight, ran off, and eventually tried-out. Just as Jessie promised, Cindy made it. She's been in cheerleading ever since, about one year.

But did the other cheerleader immediately accept her, as they should have? Nope, in fact, she is still trying to gain their approval. She does _everything_ in her power to get Nick or Betty, or any other football player or cheerleader's, attention. Yesterday, I over-heard her talking to Jessie, about dieing her hair, the latest of several dumb tests Betty and Nick have been putting her through. If you ask me, neither Nick nor Betty has any intention of letting Cindy inside the 'inner circle.' This has been going on for a year, and once Cindy 'aces' a test, she has to keep doing that one thing, while doing something even less like her at the same time. I can't tell you how long it's been since we last fought. That was her first 'test' to quit being around, flirting with, or teasing (unless told to do so) me. And I miss those fights so much. I guess the only way she can justify taking notice of my existence is when I trip her or, heaven forbid, mess up her hair. So obviously I still have feelings for her, truth is probably always will, but she's not really the same Cindy I knew, the one I loved. I'm sure she's there somewhere, I just don't know where. 

I grabbed my clothes, and put them on and trudged down the stairs, only to find a piece of toast, the usual, but still I could use something to make my day better. Then I went back to my thoughts. 

It was just about the time Cindy changed that Libby's parents' got a divorce, in the end of the fifth grade. And now, just when she's gotten used to the back and forth, and all of their stuff was at last divided up, now Libby has to face choosing to live mainly with her mom or dad. I thought this little issue, well little compared to mine at least, would bring Cindy back to her old self, but it isn't doing that, at least it hasn't yet. Probably because they still manage to communicate via IM, E-mail, and phone and, vary rarely, at each other's homes; every day, from five to eight excluding Friday and Saturday nights, of course. But it doesn't show, I wouldn't be surprised if I were the only one who knew about these 'secret' conversations. 

More thoughts came in, I tried my best to stop them as I ate, but they came anyways. "Have you left yet?"

"Leaving now, Mom." I said grabbing my jetpack and closing the door behind me. I still had approximately 5 min, and 33.56 seconds before the bus came, and it took three of those minutes to get to the bus stop on the other end of the street, 'looks like I caught Sheen.' I thought to myself racing to the end of the driveway. I caught up with Sheen just in time. "Hey Sheen!" I said as enthusiastically as I could, no reason to let others know that I was having troubles. 

"Hey, Jimmy." Sheen said, almost as unenthused as I felt.

"How ya doing?" I asked, if my acting skills were convincing, I knew you could tell I was at least uneasy about something just by my conversational skills, or lack there of.

"Ok." Sheen said, still staring at the pavement.

"Has a new Ultra-lord episode come out yet?" I said, it was my best set to get him talking, if not there was only one thing that would work.

"Haven't checked, but I suppose so."

"O, How's Libby?" I hated to have to resort to that, but if Ultralord isn't a conversation starter, then the only thing left was Libby.

"Dang it Jimmy! She hasn't said more than one hounded words to me since the divorce!" 'So apparently, as I suspected, that will get him to talk.' Sheen threw his hands up into the air as he practically yelled at me. "And when I tell her I would take her mind off things, take her to the movies, buy a snack at the candy bar, all she does is shrug her shoulders, and say she's busy! Her dad was a jerk, so is mine, but that doesn't mean all guys are. I'm a very decent guy Jimmy, and what do I get for it? Nothing!"

"So, what's new at your house?" I said desperate to change the subject, I hated seeing Sheen turn into his dad, which he does, if you talk about certain subjects at certain times.

"Sorry," He whispered. "Well, yesterday I saw…"

I never did get to hear what Sheen saw, or where, because in that same moment Libby and Cindy, neither talking to the other, bumped into me and Sheen causing all four of us to fell down. Sheen immediately stood up; didn't bother to brush himself off and offered his hand to help pull her up; she refused.

I stayed there, down on the middle of the road, for about another 45 seconds. I wanted to offer to help Cindy, but there was a really sharp pain in my side. It wasn't broken, seeing as how I got up eventually, just damaged somehow.

"Watch your step, Nerdtron!" I heard Cindy call out, but not without looking around to see if anyone was in audible range. 'O, that sweet venomous name!' I couldn't help but think, it'd been 4 months, 13 days, 17 hours, and 43.2 seconds since I last heard her call me that. 

"Sorry, Vortex." I tried my best to sneer her name, hoping that she'd try to make a comeback.  She didn't. So, that was that. I picked my jetpack up, and preceded to walk to school, surely I had missed the bus by now. I walked pretty quickly, and by the time I had gotten to school I saw Cindy hopping out of Nick's car, and talking to him flirtatiously. I looked away. I know I shouldn't care what she does with her life, I mean just cause something's wrong for me doesn't mean it's not right for her, but I do. So, as usual, I turned my head, looked at the ground and focused on getting to class. Not five minutes after I sat down the final bell rang. 

"Claaaaass, please take your seeeats." Mrs. Fowl crowed. Instantaneously the whole class sat down, except for, of coarse, Cindy and Nick. "I have some gooood news. Sooon, we will have four new additions to our claaaaass. They should beeeeee here by the end of this month." Mrs. Fowl said excitedly. Just as fast as the class had sat down, most got up and began talking about the new students. Everyone thought they were going to be their friends, except for the cheerleaders, who were already planning their first prank to pull on the 'newbies.' 

I decided that there was no other better time to draw upgrades for Goddard then now, and with four hours till lunch, I had plenty of time. So I opened up my desk to get my Neutronic pencil that tells you, within five minutes, when you will run out of lead.  That's when a big cloud of white chalk dust hit my face. 'Nerdtron and a joke in the same day, not bad' I thought to myself. Things just might be looking up. I grabbed my pencil and a few sheets of, now chalk-covered, white paper, and began to draw.                      


End file.
